Beware Of School Wellness & 'Mental Health' Surveys

A recent post from Kids First in the USA prompted us to revisit our 'wellness survey' findings - because as the new school year is underway, the surveying of students is happening right now.

If you’re a parent with kids in school - you may have noticed that their school is conducting surveys on students at ever-increasing rates.

Or, you may not notice, as you won’t know unless your child tells you.

At Let Kids Be Kids we’ve been looking into student surveys, and recommend checking out our previous posts about the HEEADSSS Assessment, which is one of a number of surveys being used in NZ. HEEADSSS appears to be present with Year 9-10 students (13-14 year olds).

It is also used in GP practices, hospitals etc.

Your child’s school may be using Goodspace Schools without your knowledge.

We recommend you dive in and look closely at the surveys.

Recent letter from a high school to parents of a new year 9 student

Read more on Starship’s website

Note that not all schools appear to be informing parents. It appears that government funding has ‘allowed’ HEEADSSS to be in all public high schools. So it pays to check.

Following on from the above video, Penny Marie was invited onto Reality Check Radio to discuss the assessment with Paul Brennan…

And our follow-up report, sharing personal stories after a number of people contacted us with their stories about HEEADSSS…

We recommend you read this recently post by US based Kids First: Mental Health in K12 Is An Adult-First Agenda.

Mental Health in K12 Is An Adult-First Agenda

What can you do if you don’t want your child being surveyed?

The Let Kids Be Kids website has:

• ‘Notice of Parental Authority’ - A template email you may take and adapt to suit, which you might like to use as a starting point to communicate with your school

• Get our HEEADSSS Assessment Analysis for an in depth review of this psychosocial assessment tool.

• For more support and to join our community, check out the video and join us here.

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